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Europa Group E: Mystic Björk’s Matchday 1 Visions by Roscola

♫ brrr-oooo-eee-up aaah-ya-leee-ooo-ih ♫

Welcome to Mystic Björk’s Group E, Matchday 1 Visions

As patron saint of peculiar pop for Reykjavik, I have a special interest in Group E and have decided to bless you with the workings of my unique mind. Each week I will be gazing into my avant-garde crystal ball to give you my predictions on how each tie will shake out.

KR Reykjavik (roscola) Vs Panathinaikos (Acquafresca)

As things stand, this is a tight matchup. Sharing a lot of the same players, this one might come down to the home advantage for my beautiful home city of Reykjavik.

On current teams, the tie hangs on just these three differences:

Zabaleta Vs Luiz

Suarez Vs Podolski

Ba Vs Lambert

I predict that Ba will play against Reading and score a volcano full, while Lambert will struggle to score against a United whose defence is showing the green shoots of recovery. Podolski has the wind in his sails and on home turf you might expect him to outscore Suarez.

roscola is widely expected to save his transfer for the first time since Iceland was settled. However, Acquafresca has publicly expressed interest in dropping Luiz and perhaps also bringing in Fellaini. So there may be a shakeup here.

Mystic Björk’s Vision: A narrow yet glorious win for my beautiful home city of Reykjavik

Fiorentina (RoysCallerAnne) Vs Norwich (Light Knight)

This one is much harder to call, even for a supremely mystic popstrel like me. RoysCallerAnne has activated his wildcard. Game on. Light Knight is presumably exercising viking-like strength by resisting until the last week.

I can predict with some degree of confidence however that Fiorentina’s team will look nothing like the eccentric Norwich, with its 5 (five!) big hitters at the back and wildly differential frontline of Tevez – Cole – Benteke.

Norwich’s far-from-the-norm approach is close to my eclectic heart and I see some success for Norwich this week. While GJ and Tommy V may struggle to deliver, Cech, Kompany, Vertonghen and Baines all have favourable fixtures and may well bring home the bacon. Belgian Beast Benteke couldn’t wish for a softer defence than travelling Newcastle but Tevez’s lack of form and Cole’s tough game make them hard to like this week. I think Fiorentina’s wildcard plus home advantage will probably tell here.

Mystic Björk’s Vision: Sadly, I see a comfortable win for mainstream Fiorentina over quirky Norwich